Thursday, August 17, 2006

Sorry Keith, this post is pretty much all bicycles

Hopefully, the other 19 of you readers will find something to like, though.

First, Gord (who is faster than me) provides a wonderful account of his ride in the longest bike race in Canada. It sounds like a doozy of an event, and the tale is told well.

Second, having just recently yammered on about electric-assist bicycles and other light EVs, I saw this guy on my commute home:

He has built his own Stokemonkey-style electric-assist bicycle, and it looks like it works quite well: he passed me near Lougheed Mall as I was doing my 5 km/h recovery from an especially juicy sprint to beat the light, and when I saw the electric motor, I gave it everything to catch him.

Turns out the motor is typically used in electric wheelchairs (and occasionally in robot combat). The drive was to a freewheel cog mounted on the flip side of a flip-flop hub, something used on singlespeed/fixie bikes to allow a second gear option by removing the rear wheel and flipping it over.